The present invention relates to ways to represent locations to facilitate navigation and routing.
There are various kinds of computer-based navigation and mapping systems that facilitate finding and routing to desired destinations. For example, navigation systems installed in vehicles provide useful information to vehicle drivers and passengers, including information for finding desired destinations, as well as route guidance information for driving to destinations. Similar features are available on portable (e.g., handheld) devices. Some of these types of portable devices can be used in vehicles, but can also be carried by pedestrians or by persons using other modes of transportation, such as trains, ferries, and so on. Navigation and routing information is also available from Internet sites. Navigation and routing information is also available on mobile phones.
These systems and applications rely on data that represents the road network and other geographic features in a region. In order to support navigation and routing functions, the geographic data used in these systems and applications includes information about streets, address ranges, speed limits along roads, one-way streets, turn restrictions, locations of businesses and other points of interest, and so on.
Conventional navigation systems and routing applications generally perform well for finding destinations and providing guidance to travel to desired destinations. However, there is room for improvement. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to destinations that are located off the public road network. It sometimes occurs that stores, offices and other buildings are actually physically located some distance from their official listed street addresses. For example, even though a building may have a listed street address along a public road, it may be necessary to travel along a private access road or across a parking lot to reach the actual physical location of the building. In these cases, when a navigation system user has specified a desired destination by its street address, the user may arrive at the specified street address but find it still necessary to travel on an access road or cross a parking area to physically reach the desired destination. In some cases, it even may be unclear how to reach the desired destination from the street address.
Another situation that sometimes occurs is that the desired destination is a store located in a shopping mall. In this case, the store may have a street address along a public road, but it may be necessary to park in a lot and walk through the mall to reach the store. In this case, a navigation system user may arrive at the street address of the store, but find it unclear where to park and how to physically reach the desired destination.
These are some situations where conventional navigation and routing applications may leave room for improvements, i.e., to provide meaningful guidance that enables users to travel all the way to their desired destinations. Further, there is a need for improvements in providing the kind of data that enables navigation and routing applications to offer better routing and guidance.